Page 49 of Nearly Dead

I recoil.“Go to hell.”

“I’ve been,” he says conversationally.“It’s overrated.”

“Aren’t you married?”I back up, trying to put distance between us, but he matches me step for step.

Rumor has it Leviathan’s wife passed years ago, but he summons her nightly to his bed.

“Like such things have ever stopped the supernaturals,” he says.

“Gross,” I whisper under my breath.

“You’re different, Tamara Devine,” he continues.“From the moment you were conceived, I sensed your potential.A mortal child born to a supernatural father and a human mother, carrying dormant abilities that just needed activation.”

“You sent goblins to kill me,” I remind him.“That doesn’t really say, hey, I want to marry you, does it?”

“Not kill you,” he corrects.“Test you.Prepare you.The goblins fed your life force directly to me, creating a connection that would make your transformation easier to control.And you’ve transformed beautifully.Your hybrid nature is stable, more or less.”His eyes gleam.“You just need guidance.I can help you.”

“I don’t want your guidance.”I recoil.“And I definitely don’t want your control.”

“Don’t you?”he asks softly.“I can feel your struggle, Tamara.The constant war between vampire and wolf.The hunger that never quite leaves.The rage that simmers just beneath the surface.I can help you master it all.Look at you.Tethered to a vampire.Hunted by werewolves.Half-lit with a power you barely understand.Your own family’s ghost rotting on your shoulder.You’re unraveling, Tamara.And you don’t even know which thread to pull first.”

My pulse pounds in my ears, but I keep my spine straight.

“I know who I am.”

“Do you?”he whispers.

For a moment,just a moment, I’m tempted.The promise of control, of understanding what I’ve become, is seductive.Just like when Elizabeth offered her version of it.

“And all I have to do is what?”I ask.“Become your weapon?”

“My queen,” he corrects.“My equal.”

“Bullshit.”I give a short, humorless laugh.“You don’t want an equal.You want a lacky.”

His expression hardens.“I’m offering you a choice, Tamara.Join me willingly, and I’ll teach you to harness your true potential.Refuse, and I’ll take what I want anyway.But it will be much more unpleasant?—”

“I’ll take unpleasant,” I say, feeling my wolf nature pushing forward, eager for battle.

“—unpleasant for everyone you care about,” he finishes.

Conrad’s voice breaks through again, weaker now.“Tamara, don’t fight him.He’s too strong.”

“Listen to your brother,” Leviathan says.“He’s learned the hard way what happens to those who defy me.”

“Let Conrad go,” I demand.“You don’t need him.”

“He’s mine,” Leviathan says simply.“Just as you will be.”

I lunge forward, my hybrid speed taking him by surprise.My claws slash across his face, drawing blood that looks black in the dim light.

Leviathan staggers back, touching his cheek.He looks at the blood on his fingers with something like wonder.“Impressive.No one has managed to wound me in a very long time.”

Before I can press my advantage, he makes a sharp gesture.The air between us thickens, and I’m thrown backward, crashing into a bookshelf that collapses under the impact.Heavy books drop around me.

“I’d rather not damage you,” he says, approaching me as I struggle to my feet.“But I will if I must.”

I snarl, feeling my body begin to shift.Fur sprouts along my arms, my jaw elongates, and my senses sharpen to predatory focus.The vampire in me is there too, calculating, cold, patient beneath the wolf’s rage.

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